WHO teams visits Wuhan foodstuff current market in search of virus clues

A Entire world Health Corporation team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic has frequented the foods sector in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was connected to many early bacterial infections

WUHAN, China — A Planet Overall health Organization workforce looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday visited the foodstuff market place in the Chinese town of Wuhan that was joined to a lot of early infections.

The staff customers visited the Huanan Seafood Market for about an hour in the afternoon, and just one of them flashed a thumbs up indication when reporters requested how the excursion was going.

The market place was the web site of a December 2019 outbreak of the virus. Scientists initially suspected the virus came from wild animals bought in the market. The market has because been mostly dominated out but it could present hints to how the virus unfold so widely.

“Very critical internet site visits nowadays — a wholesale sector to start with & Huanan Seafood Current market just now,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the U.S. group EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO team, reported in a tweet. “Very educational & critical for our joint teams to fully grasp the epidemiology of COVID as it started to distribute at the stop of 2019.”

Earlier in the working day, the team users were being also seen walking by way of sections of the Baishazhou market place — a single of the biggest moist markets in Wuhan — surrounded by a significant entourage of Chinese officials and associates. The current market was the food stuff distribution center for Wuhan during the city’s 76-day lockdown final year.

The users, with knowledge in veterinary medication, virology, food items basic safety and epidemiology, have so far frequented two hospitals at the heart of the early outbreak — Wuhan Jinyintan Healthcare facility and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medication Healthcare facility.

On Saturday, they also frequented a museum exhibition devoted to the early historical past of COVID-19.

The mission has turn out to be politically charged, as China seeks to steer clear of blame for alleged missteps in its early reaction to the outbreak.

A solitary pay a visit to by researchers is not likely to verify the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is normally an exhaustive endeavor that requires yrs of investigation such as using animal samples, genetic investigation and epidemiological reports.

1 chance is that a wildlife poacher could have handed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan. The Chinese authorities has promoted theories, with minor evidence, that the outbreak might have started off with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a idea roundly turned down by international scientists and organizations.

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Soo described from Hong Kong.